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The aim of this article is to investigate the determinants of the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets: evidence from Vietnam.

This article relies on the resource-based view to examine the factors affecting the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets. The method employed in the research is the generalized method of moments for testing hypotheses of data collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam in the period of 2013–2016.

The results show that factors such as the intensity of capital investment, age and size of the firm, labor productivity, foreign ownership, location, cost management effectiveness and export activities have a positive effect on the performance of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises, while revenue growth rate, fixed assets and financial leverage tend to hinder their performance. This has brought important messages that the input markets and the business environment in emerging markets like Vietnam have not yet stimulated well-economic activities.

This study sheds light on a topic that has not been fully explored in small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets in general, and Vietnam in particular. Specifically, small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets reconfigure available resources and strengthen internal capabilities to overcome barriers of the shortages of strategic, rare and irreplaceable resources in order to improve their performance. This is a unique contribution to the existing literature and highlights the original value of this article.

The purpose of this paper is to understand whether or not factors that impact the performance–innovation nexus differ from one percentage level of performance to another among small- and medium-sized enterprises in regional Australia, with a specific focus on e-innovation by strategic and non-strategic firms in the agricultural sector and in other industries.

Researchers implicitly assumed that the performance–innovation relationship is uniform across high-level, mid-level and low-level performing small- and medium-sized enterprises. In this study, the authors analysed performance at different percentage levels.

The findings indicate that the levels of small- and medium-sized enterprises performance have a significant difference in terms of the factors influencing their performance. The industry may be a determinant of performance, which is similar in the case of the topmost performers in the non-agricultural sector. The major findings of this study are as follows: the performance–innovation relationship differs by the percentage level of small- and medium-sized enterprises performance; and Solow’s productivity paradox exists at the firm level.

The authors recommend that rural policies should target low-performing firms. Moreover, researchers should adopt methodologies that shed light on the differences in the performance–innovation nexus across performance levels rather than one-size-fits-all methodologies that are often adopted.

The major contributions of this study are that the performance–innovation relationship differs by the level of small- and medium-sized enterprises performance, and Solow’s productivity paradox exists at the firm level.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of innovation capabilities and social media capabilities on the relationship between brand orientation and brand performance among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the size differential feature from the organizational ecology theory, the paper further tests variations in these conditions across disaggregated SME levels.

The empirical part of the study was carried out with a sample of 484 enterprises in an emerging market context via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, along with a moderated hierarchical regression.

Results from the moderated hierarchical regression analysis indicate that although the two capabilities generally offered positive moderating effects across all enterprises, these are conditional and not invariant when disaggregated based on enterprise sizes (small vs medium).

The study suggests the need for enterprise owners/managers to identify optimal combinations of enterprise capabilities, based on their sizes, for which their complementarities with brand orientation efforts are more potent.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in performance of the Indian ceramic enterprises. The paper also aims at benchmarking the Indian ceramic enterprises based on enterprise size and market orientation (export activity).

The research is based on the empirical study of Indian ceramic industry. Propositions are developed to study: the impact of GSCM pressures, implementation level of GSCM practices, improvement in GSCM performance, and the effect of GSCM pressures on implementation of practices, and impact of GSCM practices on GSCM performance. Data are collected from Indian ceramic enterprises of different sizes. Exploratory factor analysis is performed to segregate the pressures, practices and performance variables into constructs. Two-step algorithm, with log-likelihood measures of distance and Bayesian information criterion, is used to decide the optimal number of clusters. These clusters are compared and benchmarked according to the enterprise size and export activity.

This study finds that the implementation level of GSCM practices is higher in large- and medium-size enterprises as compared to small-size enterprises. Large- and medium-size enterprises have high impact of mimetic and informative pressures and small enterprises have high impact of coercive pressure (CP). Although the CP is high on small enterprises but due to the limited resources, these enterprises cannot afford to implement GSCM practices. The implementation of GSCM practices results into the improvement of environmental and operational performance but decrease in economic performance.

The findings of this study will suggest the policy maker to encourage the diffusion mechanism through a collaborative partnership with larger enterprises to enhance the implementation level of GSCM practices in small-size enterprises.

The novelty of the paper are: it analyzes and benchmarks GSCM pressures, practice and performance for Indian ceramic enterprises by considering enterprises size and export activities as control variables, and it finds the effect of GSCM pressures on the implementation level of GSCM practices and improvement in enterprise performance for Indian ceramic enterprises.

This article analyzes the impact of social insurance on firm performance by obtaining evidence from Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The method employed in the research is the generalized method of moments for testing hypotheses of data collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam.

The results show that social insurance contributions can enhance firm performance in three dimensions: return on equity (ROE), labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP). In addition, financial leverage, firm size, the average wage of workers and fixed assets have an impact on the social insurance costs of these companies.

This article provides a novel explanation of the contribution of social insurance to firm performance. In particular, social insurance contribution not only increases labor productivity but also boosts the growth of the TFP of companies. In addition, the article points out that taking care of the benefits of employees is a valuable investment of companies. These are the unique contributions of the paper to the literature on the economic impact of social insurance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and quality performance in small and medium‐size enterprises (SMEs), and if such relationships differ between the two groups of enterprises.

Specifically, the study investigates whether there is (or not) any moderating effect of organisation size (i.e. small versus medium firms) in the hypothesized relationships. A total of 124 SMEs provided the data for the study. The data were analysed using factor and hierarchical multiple regression analyses.

The results indicate a significant direct relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation and quality performance. Specifically, the three dimensions of entrepreneurship namely, risk taking, proactiveness and autonomy are significantly associated with innovation and quality performance. Innovation is directly related to performance and mediates in the entrepreneurship‐performance link. These relationships do not differ between small and medium‐size enterprises, thus size is not a key factor in explaining the contributions of entrepreneurship to innovation and performance of SMEs.

The study's sample is limited to service SMEs in Pakistan. Although the objectives of the study were met, more studies are needed that compare or contrast small and medium enterprises, in other sectors and contexts.

The study underscores the importance of entrepreneurship to innovation and firms' quality performance in both small and medium‐size enterprises. This link is not dependent on the size of the enterprise. Management should promote risk taking, proactiveness and autonomy in order to enhance innovation and performance.

The ratio of female to male entrepreneurs in Pakistan's IT sector is very low. This is clearly demonstrated in the sampling frame composition and the eventual responses received from both genders – out of 124 respondents, only two are females, this is less than 0.02 percent. The paper suggests some policy interventions that could change such asymmetric representation of women in entrepreneurial activities in Pakistan.

There is limited research comparing or contrasting small and medium‐size firms. Studies on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have often used pooled data, thereby assuming inherent similarity, yet there is hardly any empirical basis for such. This study provides such basis/justification. It further argues that entrepreneurship and innovation are robust determinants of quality performance in both small and medium firms.

This paper aims to report the results of an investigation into the effect of corporate governance factors on the performance of listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and examines whether this effect differs between the two sizes of business.

The paper uses unbalanced panel data regression analysis on a sample of 234 SMEs listed on the Alternative Investment Market, for a 10-year period (2004-2013).

The panel data analysis results show that for all SMEs, corporate governance factors – board size, chief executive officer (CEO) age and tenure and directors’ remuneration – are significantly associated with performance of SMEs. The results also suggest that while board size is associated with the performance of both small and medium enterprises, CEO age is significant only for medium firms and directors’ remuneration only for small ones, while CEO tenure and proportion of non-executive directors are not significant for either.

Overall, the results imply that corporate governance factors affect the performance of listed SMEs. However, this effect differs significantly between small and medium enterprises. The findings have important implications for policymakers who prescribe corporate governance mechanisms for SMEs.

The paper adds to existing literature on corporate governance of SMEs by establishing a relationship between firm performance and board size, CEO age, CEO tenure, directors’ remuneration and proportion of non-executive directors.

This paper aims to trace the evolution of industrial subcontracting in Japan, over a period of time. Subsequently, the transition in the spread and depth of subcontracting along with relative performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Japanese industry over a period of time are to be analyzed.

First, a historical over view of the evolution of industrial subcontracting in Japan is discussed based on literature and discussion with experts. Secondly, based on secondary data, the industry‐wise trends of subcontracting and performance of small, medium and large enterprises are analyzed.

Japanese industrial subcontracting and structure evolved over the period, particularly after World War II, represents integration and mutual coordination among small, medium and large enterprises across industries. Along with the growth of multi‐layered subcontracting, labour productivities of SMEs have improved as that of large though value added/value of output has remained more or less at the same level. Overall, there is reason to argue that SMEs have benefited from the system of subcontracting in Japanese manufacturing towards its overall competitiveness.

It would be worthwhile to promote multi‐layered industrial subcontracting, particularly with locally based/newly entered TNCs at the helm of the pyramid, in industrializing countries like India, to enhance the competitiveness of local SMEs.

This paper provides the reader with an understanding of evolution of industrial subcontracting in Japan since World War I and its recent trends and throws light on how SMEs have improved their performance over a period of time.

This research probes into the execution of small and medium‐sized enterprises’ value creativities by a difference analysis with different classifications, different capital, different turnover, different employees, and different established years. This study develop a questionnaire about value creativity with five dimensions and thirty‐five items according to “Valuation” by McKinsey and Company, Inc. and Copeland et al., such as: “Aspiration and target,” “Portfolio management,” “Organization design,” “Process management,” and “Business and individual performance management.” The results are as follows: (1) Most small and medium‐ sized enterprises (SMEs) have executed value creativities; (2) There is a difference in the execution of value creativities between the livelihood industry and the chemical industry; the execution of value creativities by livelihood industry is better than the chemical industry; (3) For value creativities of the execution of different capital and turnover for SMEs, bigger entities are better than smaller ones; (4) For the value creativities of the execution of different numbers of staff in SMEs, those with more staff are better than those with fewer staff; (5) For the value creativities of the execution of different established years for SMEs, those established longer are better than those established shorter.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.